The Balkan Road and the Guarding of Europe: The Refugee Crisis on the Borders of Slovenia

The article investigates public reactions to the refugee crisis in the autumn of 2015. The focus is on the emerging “post-Schengen” imaginaries of the border which are formed in reaction to the actions by the member states at the periphery (Hungary, Croatia) and in the centre’s alleged expectations that the external borders of the EU will be protected. In this constellation, Slovenia assumes the role of the border guard of Europe, which is based on the memories of the 20th century, in particular of the ascribed traumatic legacy of being part of the socialist bloc. The theoretical argument derived from the study emphasises the importance of historical treatments of public perceptions about political community, borders and solidarity, as well as the need for localized analyses of popu­lar beliefs of belonging which stem from the regional histories.KEY WORDS: refugees, the Balkan road, borders, strangers, Slovenia, precariousness